The Economy of Cities

The book advances two propositions, one in the field of archaeology, the other in economics. Traditional archaeologists had always presumed that a city could only appear where there was enough food for a great number of inhabitants not producing food exclusively to exist. Hence, agriculture logically preceded the city. Jacobs argues that the opposite is true. It is through trade in wild animals and grains that people in cities discovered agriculture and then exported it (like our modern factory towns) to the outskirts of the city itself. In this work Jacobs also tackles the question of economic booms. Great cities with flourishing economies have had one of these economic booms. She asserts that it is through import replacement that cities have such economic growth. She also asserts that cities are at the root of all economic growth (agricultural, manufacturing, technology, information, etc) and therefore import replacement is the cause to all economic growth. In an interview with Bill Steigerwald in Reason Magazine (06/01), Jacobs said that if she is remembered for being a great intellectual she will be remembered not for her work concerning city planning, but for the discovery of import replacement.